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Netanyahu’s Address to the US Congress Exposes GOP Leadership

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s invitation to address the Joint Session of Congress was ill-conceived and exposed the poor leadership of the GOP. It was ill-conceived and wrong because it lacked the proper protocol and its apparent purpose was nothing more than a continuation of the effort to delegitimize and undermine President Obama.

In his blog dated 1/25/15, Michael Ramsey questioned the constitutionality of Netanyahu’s address to Congress. It would come as no surprise if this was indeed the case. In their obsession to delegitimize President Obama, the GOP has gone wild and irrational.

Typically, protocol requires that only an invitation to a foreign Head of State to officially visit or address Congress should come from the Head of State – the president. This is not what happened though, instead of the White House extending the invitation to the Israeli Prime Minister; it was Speaker John Boehner who invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to address the Congress.

It was not just that Speaker Boehner circumvented the political protocol to invite the Israeli PM; he did not extend the courtesy of consulting with the White House on this matter. Given the disrespect and negative treatment the GOP has shown the president, you have to wonder if this would have happened if the president was president.

For the past six years, Speaker Boehner’s leadership has been one that has not shown any favor to anything President Obama does. Instead of trying to work with the president, we get the constant effort of negative criticisms that have no merit and no alternate solutions: wanting to sue the president and talk of repealing Obamacare.

People who show ill will towards others usually succeed in exposing their own character flaws. This I believe is what is happening to the GOP leadership. Mr. Netanyahu’s address to the Joint Session of Congress has exposed not just the character flaws of the GOP leadership, it is also shown how politically divided America has become.

It is beyond the realm of reason that the GOP has spent the last six years trying to push President Obama over the racial cliff (a term I use in my book, Whom God Has Blessed Let No Man Curse). In the process of trying to do this they have abandoned the democratic principles/protocols, and the economic opportunities that could have helped the economy recover at a faster rate.

The GOP leaders and their supporters constantly blame the president and claim that he is not a good leader, he doesn’t love America, he is weak, and he is divisive. You get the impression that they are looking in a mirror and pointing at the image when they say these things.

Let’s be honest, contrary to their constant criticism of President Obama’s leadership, it is the GOP leadership that has shown no real leadership in over six years. This is evidenced in the division within their party; their inability to provide an alternate agenda to ObamaCare and immigration reform; their lack of condemnation of racial innuendos aimed at the president; and their outsourcing of their leadership to PM Netanyahu.

In their effort to continue to demonize the President, the GOP is squandering the mandate given to them in the midterm election. It is time that the GOP realizes that this effort will not succeed. It is time they start showing real leadership that will stop dividing America and help to move the country forward.